TITLE

Do visual distractions affect performance?

Problem Scenario: Does visual distractions effect your performance?

Broad Question:

Effective Performances on visual distractions

Specific Question:

Effective performances on visual distractions?

Hypothesis:

It is hypothesized that when people get visually distracted, it will cause some type of affect.

Graph of Hypothesis:

Variables:

Independent Variable:

Visual Distractions

Dependent Variable:

Performance

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

Places that you test the conditions. The task that there being asked to performed

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation:

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General Plan:

I intend to conduct my project at school. The project that i am going to be doing is testing people, on an effective performance, that will be timed in a mirror. From this experiment i may encounter a problem with there task, and time consuming.

Potential Problems And Solutions:

If the person got the task done before the time is up, and how doing it in the mirror didn't effect anything. i will have to fix this problem by giving them a harder task to do.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns:

There are no safety or environmental concerns.

Experimental Design:

(add the correct headings from the experimental design page before beginning)

What is your experimental unit?

One person

Number Of Trials:

25 times

Number Of Subjects In Each trial:

One trial with 25 people

Number of Observations:

25 observations

When data will be collected

My data will be collected before march 20th

Where will it take place

school, and apartment building

Resources and Budget Table:

Item	Number needed	Where I will get this	Cost
puzzle	3	on line	0
word search	3	on line	0

Detailed Procedure:

Step 1: provide each individual with a script.
Step 2: Give the person 5 minutes to memorize.
Step 3: Time the person in the mirror when there reciting it.
Step 4: mark down all of the right, and wrong mistakes.
Step 5: Time them reciting without the mirror.
Step 6: Mark down all of the right, and wrong mistakes.
Step 7: Analyze the data that i have collected.

Diagram:

Photo List:

Time Line:

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Data Table:

Effective	18
Not Effective	7
Step 1	Provide each individual with a script
Step 2	give the person 5 minutes to memorize
Step 3	Time the person in the mirror when reciting it
Step 4	mark down all of the right and wrong mistakes
Step 5	time them reciting without the mirror
Step 6	Mark down all of the right and wrong mistakes
step 7	Analyze the data that i have collected

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Data Analysis;

All Raw Data:

Graphs:

Photos:

Results:

The graph of my experiment shows the number of people tested and whether or not they were affected. 25 people were tested. Out of these 25, 18 were affected and seven were not. The visual distractions are the independent variable and the dependent variable is if the people were affected by it. The graph shows that most people were affected.

Conclusion:

My hypothesis that visual distractions affect peoples' performance was correct because based on the graph most of the test subjects were affected.

Discussion:

For my experiment I did a test to answer the question, "Do visual distractions affect your performance." I was definitely able to answer my experiment question. I found that visual distractions do affect your performance. I saw some trends in the data. The correlation between the dependent variable, 'performance', and the independent variable, ' visual distractions' was strong. Usually, the more visual distractions there were, the worse a person's performance was. The experiment did not run into any problems, nor did it contain any data errors. One problem I ran into was having trouble in finding enough people, to complete the task.

Benefit to Community and/or Science:

It benefited the community because it shows that people get distracted easily and this is bad for their performance. For tests, teachers can make sure there are no distractions nearby.

Background Research:

It is shown that many visual distractions cause some type of affect. When people have there mind set on something it seems that they have their mind on something else. This happens when getting distracted turns off different parts of our brain. When our brains are set on something you need to do, then the other part wants to do something else. It's proven that it is hard to control, but there is an easy way to stop it. Scientists have always recognized two different ways that the brain processes information coming from the outside world, on how visual distraction works.

References:

http://www.iatss.or.jp/pdf/research/25/25-2-03.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20380916

Abstract:

My question was do visual distractions affect your performance? My hypothesis was that does visual distractions affect your performance? Based on background research, I found that the brain gets easily distracted when there is something it needs to do. My procedure began when I gathered all of the materials needed. Then I had some people memorize a script for a minute. Next to some people was a mirror, and some not. They had to repeat back as much of the script that they memorized. I recorded how many times each person messed up and how well they did. From this data I made a graph that proved people who had a mirror beside them did worse than those without. This benefits the community because people doing tests can make sure they are not to be distracted by things like mirrors. My experiment shows that humans are easily distracted by common objects.